Prairie Avenue

by Arthur Meeker Jr

Aunt Lydia Stack--when young, when middle-aged, when elderly--is one of the most charming women in recent fiction. And charm--the charm of nostalgia and of an expertly told tale--characterizes throughout this novel of Chicago's wealthy and great from 1880's to 1918.

Here the author of that very popular novel, The Irony of Mischief, has turned from the France of Louis XIV to the scenes and the people among whom he himself grew up. The result, cast in the form of a chronicle of what happened to the family in one Prairie Avenue mansion, is an absolutely enchanting novel. It draws a lifelike picture of the men of great wealth who made Chicago, of their wives, their children, and their grandchildren.

Here is an American novel destined to be a big best seller, not for any sensational reasons, but because it is a full-blooded and fascinating story about glamorous and wholly credible people.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(As of spring 2012, I have a first-edition copy of this book for sale at my arts center's rare-book service [cclapcenter.com/rarebooks], so I thought I would repost here the description I came up with for it, part review and part historical overview.)

Although sadly now nearly forgotten, at one point Arthur Meeker Jr. (1902-1971) was one of the most successful authors Chicago ever produced, a co-founder of the local chapter of PEN who had two national bestsellers in his nine-book career. The son of an Armour executive who was raised among the high society of the Edwardian Age, even after becoming a journalist he remained a fixture among the elite, traveling Europe widely and becoming known for his witty, Ward-McAllisteresque reports. It's no surprise that this second-most popular book of his career would come just a few years after the death of his parents, because in many ways it seems to be an autobiographical roman-a-clef about the years as a child he spent with them: set in stages between the 1880s and World War One, it looks at the comings and goings in Chicago's infamous Prairie Avenue neighborhood where Meeker himself was raised, featuring a main protagonist who also travels Europe widely and eventually becomes a journalist as well. (In fact, the book itself is set at the very specific street address of 1817 S. Prairie Avenue, just across the street from the now historical Clarke and Glessner Houses, although I don't know if this matches up with Meeker's real-life address from those years; if anyone on the internet is coming across this in the future and knows, please drop me a line and let me know too!)

Just like the Indianapolis neighborhood featured in Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, the Prairie Avenue district of Chicago went through a fascinating transition between the Civil War and World War One, the progression of which is the main point of Meeker's own novel. The city's very first neighborhood for old-money blue bloods, and located just two miles south of the downtown Loop, the entire reason it was so important to be that close to downtown in the Victorian Age was precisely because it was so difficult to travel long distances then, making the sprawling estates immediately surrounding central cities extremely valuable, and turning this entire southside neighborhood into a wonderland of moody Gothic mansions, adjoining servant quarters, horse stables and fruit orchards; but as bridges and improved infrastructure started making the city's northside more and more popular in the following decades, and suburban trains drove more and more of the rich out into the wilderness altogether, neighborhoods like Prairie Avenue quickly became discarded slums, with no one left who wanted to buy the crumbling mansions and with more and more of them knocked down to make way for industrial factories and warehouses. Meeker follows both the highs and lows of this progression in his own book, delightfully dropping in literally hundreds of references along the way to long-closed Chicago institutions, famous real families, restaurants, pubs, gentlemen's clubs, local landmarks and a lot, lot more; and he really brings alive the sense of what it must've been like to stroll the sidewalks of this neighborhood in its turn-of-the-century height, a foggy gaslamp-lit amusement park of Victoriana as can only be seen through the wide eyes of an overly eager child, a virtual paen to a way of life that had already disappeared by the time this originally came out in the 1940s, and now of course the stuff only of fanciful dreams and a handful of federally protected landmarks. (For those who don't know, the fight in the 1950s to save the smattering of mansions left in this neighborhood virtually kickstarted the entire national architectural-preservation movement; so in that sense, you can see this popular novel and Book Of The Month Club selection as partly to thank for the US having historically preserved urban landmarks in the first place.)

Called a "light and colorful entertainment" by the New York Times upon its original release, this perhaps does not take into consideration the numerous dark corners contained in Prairie Avenue, including frank depictions of suicidal depression, drug addiction and infidelity among our very proper characters, the efforts to hide and corral these problems fueling much of the melodramatic plot; and indeed, it's widely believed that Meeker himself was gay (but see his Wikipedia page for more on that), so it's certainly possible to argue that this novel's various plot machinations were actually a clever pre-Stonewall way for Meeker to explore the entire issue of being The Other, in a society that doesn't tolerate Otherness. An author who deserves to be rediscovered, at least by a grateful local literary community here in Chicago, it's CCLaP's intention to attempt to put together an entire set of first-editions of all of Meeker's books over the years (including his apparently Max Beerbohm-like 1955 memoir Chicago, With Love: A Polite and Personal History), with Prairie Avenue serving as the perfect gift for anyone interested in Chicago history, the Victorian Age in general, or the various developments in urban living that took place here in the early 20th century.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the 2nd time I had read the book, though I don't remember when the first was, just that it was years before. The book was originally published in 1949, so that tells you how good it was to bring it back. It follows a young man and his family growing up in uppercrust Victorian Chicago, and is written from his perspective as a person almost observing society and the changes happening around him. He is sort of an outsider (he was taken in by an uncle and aunt), and is always kind of an outsider in the family, in the cliques that his cousins circulate in; tolerated out of family obligations and kindness. I enjoyed the book very much and would recommend it to all.

[Diane Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very descriptive book from a boy to man perspective. The main character attaches himself to his best memories of childhood which occurred in brevity while living with his Aunt and Uncle on Prairie Avenue. As the books progresses and you see this young boy become a man, you also see how his perspective on this lovely time in history and his own life have become clearer. As anyone who has grown up understands all things witnessed through the foggy lens of childhood become crisper with age and by mid adulthood the image can sometimes become so clear that all the dirt and cracks are noticed. As with most of these stories the current reality of life on the Avenue has drastically changed from what his shiny memory holds dear. Representative of the truth of new City life in a growing and ever changing landscape that is American Cities I truly enjoyed this book. And true to this period of history there are lots of "manners" and "customs" that modern Americans scarcely remember as being important enough to even consider. Yet in this book it is those very customs that hold the shroud of mystery up over childhood for this young man. It helped create a sense of mystery whereas today's culture is often brash and glaring. This is another of my first editions which I have recently begun reading through. I enjoyed it. There are Adult themes in the book THOUGH not grossly stated or described. I would rate it PG.

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in three parts, set ten years apart, the book tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is sent to live with his aunt, uncle and cousins on tony Prairie Avenue after his feckless father loses his fortune in unwise speculation on the commodities market. There he learns how to socialize with Chicago's upper crust, most especially their neighbors, the Kennerlys (modeled after the Armour meat packing family). Little by little the secrets of the families in the neighborhood, including his own, are revealed and as the years pass by the decline of the neighborhood is a metaphor for the decline of the families of the city's great founding industrialists.

Written in rich detail, this book is a feast for Chicagoans interested in the city's wild and wooly past, as well as fans of novels of manners.

[Debra Mccauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 12 years old when I found this book in my Parents Library. We lived in the country and the days were long to fill. I had some free time one day after I had finished my regular house and school chores so I began to peruse Mom & Dad bookcases in the living room. I was looking over the volumes and after a time chose. Our living room, in the 60's. was complete with plaster wall art and the requisite big black leather recliner for my Father. I got comfy then read Prairie Avenue. I enjoyed the novel, and was to read it a couple times before one weekend I went home to discover my Parents had gotten rid of their Library. THE END

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting description of life in Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the South Side was still to some extent the stylish region to live, when Field and Pullman were not only famous and wealthy but the originators of the name and the fortune were still alive.

Though writing styles have changed considerably in the sixty years since the book was written, and I can't honestly suggest a library outside of the greater Chicago area purchase it, I'm glad I read it.

[Sharon Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book!!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used book store called, the Old Book Barn long ago and finally got around to reading it. When I married I'd left it behind and after my parents finally sent me my books months after getting married, my mother said she read it before sending it to me and liked it. I'd gotten it because of the title because I think at the time I still lived on a street called Prairie Avenue. I had absolutely no idea what it was about. My mother said it was about the street in Chicago, but told me nothing else. While reading it, I was surprised that she liked it because one of the topics is parental alcoholism. I would've thought this would remind her of her horrible, dysfunctional childhood and who knows maybe it did. I found the book interesting as it did have to do with a street in Chicago and one that was on the South side of that city. The book talked about what happened with people during the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 that burned the entire city and then moved forward in time to when people were leaving the South side to go live up in other areas of the city or out to what was the country, but is now Lake Forest or Highland Park suburbs. It even mentioned the El running through the area and that was interesting.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting if somewhat old-fashioned novel of manners set in Chicago's elite neighborhood of Prairie Avenue from the 1880s through 1918. Meeker himself (1902-1971) grew up in this area and although he claims in a preface that "[n]one of the characters is meant to be a portrait of any Chicagoan, living or dead...", it's clear that he based two of the novel's characters on Marshall Field and his son Marshall Field, Jr. The novel's narrator, Ned Ramsay, is also clearly the author. In its subject matter and story line, one is reminded of Edith Wharton's novels of New York and Newport although Meeker is certainly a much less distinguished writer. Still, he's a competent and entertaining story teller. Recommended for anyone interested in the habits and foibles of late 19th-early 20th century American "high society", especially as it happened in Chicago.

[Mocamom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting fictional account of Prairie Avenue and it's hey day written by one of it's residents. Interesting to read after the fictional account of Marshall Field and Delia Caton's long affair.

[Brianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like sitting by a warm fire in a grand Victorian mansion while a cold wind roars outside. There is nothing spectacular about the prose, but the story of urban decay and the decay of relationships gave a curious glimpse of Victorian life in Chicago. From the intro I gathered this was based on a true story. I enjoyed it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much an American Downton Abbey, that focuses mainly on the upper class. The female characters are well drawn and the story seems to be based on actual incidents. Hint: Abner Kennerley is Marshall Field.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

chicago 1885 to 1918 no characters worth remembering